Pedal to the Metal

by Jesse J. Thoma

  “What was that look for?” she asked when Moose and Holt walked away.

  “That’s the first time I’ve heard you call Holt ‘boss.’ It caught me off guard. That’s all,” Max said.

  “She’s winning me over,” Dubs said. “Should we get to work?”

  “Let’s dive in,” Max said. “We’ve got a long night ahead of us.”

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Isabelle always looked forward to date night with Holt, but tonight carried more weight than usual. They hadn’t had a chance to really talk about Lola’s proposal that they adopt Tiffany’s baby, so tonight would be their first chance. Holt had even volunteered to let Isabelle be in charge of the Batphone, Isabelle’s name for Holt’s work cell phone, which effectively meant a work free evening.

  When Holt emerged from the bedroom portion of the loft, she took Isabelle’s breath away, as she always did when Isabelle hadn’t seen her for more than a few minutes. She had traded in her white T-shirt for a white button-down shirt, untucked over her jeans, and black boots. Isabelle was happy she had chosen to wear a skirt and sleeveless top or she wouldn’t have stood a chance next to Holt.

  She got up and rolled up each cuff of Holt’s shirt. “You’re going to be too hot, baby,” she said. “But don’t you dare change.”

  “Sweetheart,” Holt said. “I could parade down Main Street naked and if you were walking next to me, not a soul would notice. You look amazingly beautiful. I wonder every day when you’re at work showing everyone that you’re the smartest woman in the room, or winning over a crowd at the coffee shop, or right now when you’re so stunningly beautiful that my heart actually hurts, how I got so damned lucky.”

  “You’re so rock hard on the outside, with your muscles, and tattoos, and toughness, but you have the squishiest insides I’ve ever come across,” Isabelle said. She kissed Holt quickly. “I love you. Now let’s get going before we miss the lighting.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Holt said.

  They headed downtown to WaterFire, a hugely popular and uniquely Providence outdoor community event. On Saturday evenings throughout the summer and fall, cauldrons suspended in the three rivers running through downtown were lit on fire. Music was piped in along the route, and vendors lined the streets, dance floors were erected, and local restaurants moved their bars outdoors for the evening. Thousands of people, sometimes tens of thousands on the really popular lightings, walked the route, lost in the magic of the flames and mystery of the water and fire.

  Isabelle loved WaterFire. She loved the smell of the wood fires and the peaceful feeling of the crowds as they strolled along the rivers. Since she had started coming with Holt, WaterFire had taken on an almost magical feeling. She felt like she was in Venice, or some unnamed, uncharted romantic location where she could happily reside forever.

  The largest collection of cauldrons resided in a basin surrounded by amphitheater-type seating and restaurants. Those cauldrons were lit by silent black boats manned by volunteers who constantly floated along the river, stoking the fires.

  They found seats and settled before the first cauldron was lit. Isabelle sat in front of Holt, between her legs, and leaned back in her arms. Holt held her tightly.

  “Have you told anyone about the baby?” Holt asked.

  “I almost told my sister,” Isabelle said. “But you know how well she keeps a secret. My mother would know, probably before I got off the phone with Ellen. She would be beside herself. She’d probably call your mother. It was overwhelming to think about.”

  Holt was laughing and Isabelle knew Holt liked her family a lot. Her sister was an amazing person, and she and Holt got along really well, and she really was terrible with secrets.

  “I probably would have told Amy, if it had come up,” Holt said. “But it didn’t.”

  “You expected Amy to ask you if anyone had offered you a baby to adopt? Really? That was never going to come up in any reasonable conversation,” Isabelle said. “Did you chicken out?”

  “Me?” Holt asked. “No way. It’s just she would have had a lot of questions I couldn’t answer. So it was better to wait for her to ask me about it.”

  “Which you knew she was never going to do. What kinds of questions were you worried about answering?”

  “Just little stuff really,” Holt said. “You know, are you going to do it? That kind of thing.”

  “Oh, right, the little stuff,” Isabelle said. She felt butterflies in her stomach. “I suppose we do need to talk about that.”

  “Of course,” Holt said. “Kind of mind blowing. I can’t stop thinking about it, actually.”

  “Me either,” Isabelle said. “What do you think, you know, when you’re thinking about it?”

  “Well, I have a lot of concerns,” Holt said, looking serious. “But I think about when you asked me a while ago if I wanted kids. I wasn’t sure at that time, but now I am. I do want kids. And I want to raise them with you. So the question becomes, I guess, is now the right time, and is that the right child for us?”

  “I want to do it,” Isabelle said, blurting out feelings she wasn’t even one hundred percent sure were hers until they were leaving her mouth. Once they were out, she was sure though, very sure. She hoped Holt felt the same way.

  Holt smiled widely. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes,” Isabelle said. “Very sure.”

  “I was hoping you would feel that way.” She reached into her pocket and produced a small square jewelry box. “I brought this along because I thought we might be having a baby.”

  Isabelle’s hands were shaking as she opened the box. Inside was a necklace made of two overlapping hearts. Three small diamonds were nestled in the metal where they met at the top. Held gently inside the hearts were two beautiful stones. Isabelle recognized her birthstone, but she didn’t know the other.

  “What is this one?” she asked.

  “That’s the baby’s birthstone,” Holt said. “I asked Lola the due date. It’s smack in the middle of the month, so early or late, I figured I had a good chance at getting it right. If I’m a month off though, I’ll change it. The hearts are you and me. The three diamonds are for our new family.”

  “This is the most amazing gift,” Isabelle said. She felt tears forming and slipping down her cheeks. “I can’t believe we’re going to do this. I know we talked about it a few times in passing, when we could catch a minute, but I thought this would take so much longer to decide.”

  “I think it’s something we both really want,” Holt said. “But now I owe you a new house. I’ll move anywhere you want. If you’re willing to find a realtor, I’ll look at every house in the state until we find the perfect one.”

  “Deal,” Isabelle hadn’t known happiness like this existed.

  “I have one last present, if you can just let me see my phone for a second,” Holt said. “I promise no work.”

  Isabelle handed over Holt’s phone. She was perplexed when Holt sent a text message, but she trusted Holt’s motives. A short time later Holt got a text reply.

  Holt tapped the screen a few times and then held up a picture for Isabelle to see.

  “Lola was going to see Tiffany today, and she told her she was talking to us about adoption and we were interested. Tiffany was in a sharing mood, apparently,” Holt said.

  Isabelle looked at the screen. She gasped out loud. On Holt’s phone was an ultrasound picture, clear as day. The baby was in profile and sucking its thumb. “Holt…”

  “Isabelle, I’d like to formally introduce you to our son.”

  Chapter Twenty-five

  “I don’t know why you needed to sacrifice my car to this cause,” Amy said. It had been two weeks since Max and Dubs had figured out the link to the auto shops. Their phone call blitz had revealed two other shops involved. As chance would have it, Holt’s best friend, Amy, got her car serviced at one of the places on their list. Somehow, Max didn’t know how, and clearly Amy was having second thoughts as well, Holt had talked her into using her
car as bait.

  “You take your car there already,” Max said. “If one of us showed up, it would be really suspicious. Even Isabelle would probably raise alarms.”

  “But I’ve been taking my car there for years. Wouldn’t they have already stolen it if they wanted it so badly?” Amy asked. “And couldn’t I have taken the car seat out? Superman finally decided he liked this car seat.”

  “I’m sorry,” Max said. “It’s for the greater good?” She knew that sounded lame. She also knew Amy had been friends with Holt long enough to understand what she did and why Holt was asking.

  “This is a new crew that just started working recently,” Dubs said. “They didn’t have their structure in place the last time you took your car in. And if you took your car seat out, that would look really sketchy. We’re hoping they don’t know you’re friends with Holt.”

  Max didn’t add that they were also hoping the thieves couldn’t see through the artificial engine trouble Jose created, and that they didn’t find the GPS tracker Holt hid on the engine block. There were a lot of “ifs” before they even got to the part where they had to actually steal the car for their plan to work. If it did work, it would be beautiful. They could just follow Amy’s car right to the bad guys.

  “It might not be any of my business,” Amy said. “But why are you two handcuffed together? Is Holt hazing you or something?”

  Despite the time since Dubs’s elopement, Max hadn’t budged on keeping her close. She sometimes wondered if she was doing it out of a sense of duty, or because it was an excuse to keep her close, without admitting to anyone, herself included, that she was, once again, struggling to keep her distance. This way she didn’t have to try.

  “It’s a long story,” Dubs said. “Good thing we like each other, right?”

  There was so much less spark in Dubs’s eyes these days. Max missed the Dubs that was constantly flirting with her, wearing clothes she knew would make her crazy, or talking nonstop. The new Dubs wasn’t a flight risk; she was a diligent worker, and seemingly learning to integrate herself into the team, but she had lost some of the spark Max found so alluring.

  “You good here, Amy?” Max asked.

  “Oh sure,” Amy said. “I’m going to watch your computer screen and see if my dot moves. Holt better be back by day care let out time. I’m currently car- and car seat-less. She’s got the only spare.”

  “Where are Holt and Isabelle today?” Dubs asked.

  “Looking at houses,” Max said. “I think I overheard Holt say they’re looking at ten this morning. I don’t know how you can even keep them straight after a while.”

  “She remembers everything,” Amy said. “And she’s spent so much time in every baby store in the state trying to pick out the safest and best of everything, she probably has a spreadsheet of the exact dimensions she needs. I’m sure she’s already made Isabelle insane. The nesting instinct has hit her hard.”

  “They’re going to be such good parents,” Max said.

  “Isabelle’s going to be amazing,” Amy said. “Holt’s gotta take it down a beat or two, or she’s going to exhaust herself before the kid’s even here. I guess she only knows one speed though.”

  “I think Isabelle will balance her,” Dubs said. “They seem good together.”

  “None better,” Amy said.

  “Come walk with me,” Max said to Dubs, tugging lightly on their joined wrists.

  “I go where you go,” Dubs said.

  They headed out of the offices and down the street. It was a beautiful day. Max knew the handcuffs made them stand out, but she didn’t care. She was miserable, and had been since things got weird between the two of them.

  “I miss you, Dubs.”

  “How is that possible?” Dubs asked. “I am eighteen inches from your side every waking minute.”

  “No, I miss the cocky, sexy, motor-mouth, constantly flirting, Dubs. The one who wore that killer dress just because you knew it would make me wild for you. I miss the one who talked my ear off, and was so outrageously full of herself because she had every reason to be. Your hair has been up and you haven’t worn makeup since the accident. You don’t have to wear clothes, makeup, or your hair down, for me, obviously. But you seemed to take enormous pleasure in all of it. Mostly, I miss your enthusiasm.”

  There was a small city park near the office, and Dubs pulled them over to a nearby bench. When they sat down and Max looked at her, she was shocked to see tears streaming down Dubs’s face. She reached up and, using both hands, wiped them gently away.

  “I’m sorry,” Max said. “I didn’t mean to make you cry. On top of it all, that was the last thing I wanted to do.”

  “It’s not your fault,” Dubs said. “I’ve spent the past few weeks doing a lot of thinking. The conclusion I’ve come to is that I’m unequivocally, completely, certainly, totally, fully in love with you. It sort of snuck up on me, somewhere between trying to make you a little crazy, and our amazing night together. But the me you say you miss so much is the one you don’t trust anymore. And now I’m handcuffed next to you every waking minute, and my chest hurts all day from things not being how they were.”

  “Oh, God, Dubs,” Max said. She pulled Dubs to her, holding her tightly. She felt like an ass. She knew she had a right to be angry with the way Dubs had snuck out, but she had also been far too dismissive of how Dubs was feeling, which was wildly unfair. “I’m sorry I’ve been so cruel. I have missed you. I care about you deeply. I was embarrassed, and hurt, and angry, when you went off on your own, but I’m sorry for making you feel badly now.”

  “I didn’t think about how it would make you look in front of Holt,” Dubs said. “I didn’t stop to consider that part. I knew you’d be pissed I didn’t let you help me, but I didn’t want anything to happen to you.”

  “You know,” Max said. “All us tough guys around here are going to get a reputation if our ladies keep being the ones rescuing us, keeping us from danger, and generally doing the macho stuff we like to think only we’re capable of doing.”

  “You know that’s bullshit, right?” Dub asked, smiling up at Max from her position nuzzled against Max’s neck.

  “Shh,” Max said. “My ego might not be able to hear that kind of thing.”

  “So now what?” Dubs asked. “For the record, I’m completely satisfied staying right here until I starve to death.”

  “I don’t want to lose you over this.” Max didn’t realize how true that was until she considered the chance it could happen. “But I guess we have some rebuilding to do. Maybe we can rewind a little and go from there? Do you want to go out tonight?”

  “Depends,” Dubs said, looking at Max, sparkle firmly back in her eye. “Will you wear the bow tie?”

  “Yes,” Max said. “But do you have something a little less ‘thirty-five on a scale of one to ten’ you can wear? I know it’s not your style, but take pity on me.”

  “A fifteen is my final offer,” Dubs said.

  “Who am I to complain?” She leaned down and kissed Dubs gently. She felt it throughout her entire body. She deepened the kiss momentarily and then broke it. They were taking things slow, after all. Her body wasn’t having any of the same qualms about returning to the feelings she had been building for Dubs. She hadn’t told Dubs the whole truth when she said she cared about her deeply. She knew she was falling in love with her. She also knew it wouldn’t take much to tip her over the edge. Right now though, she was hanging on to that edge for dear life. She didn’t want to go over until she was sure Dubs wasn’t going to disappear on her again. It felt real, but it had before too. Falling in love with someone only looking out for themselves would lead to heartbreak. And she didn’t know if Dubs was returning to her criminal life. There was still so much up in the air.

  As if reading her mind, Dubs said, “Whatever happens between us, I’m done with the life I had. I don’t know what I’ll do instead, but it will be on this side of the law. I like what I’ve become now. It’s because of you, a
nd Holt, and Lola, and the rest of the group. I just wanted you to know.”

  Max kissed the top of Dubs’s head. “You’ll be a very good non-criminal. Whatever you decide to do.”

  “It’ll take some practice.”

  Both Max’s and Dubs’s cell phones buzzed. The texts were from Holt. Amy’s car was done at the shop. Lola was taking Amy to pick it up. Now the real fun began. They had to wait and hope someone came and stole it. From the spreadsheet Max and Dubs had put together, the cars were usually stolen two to ten days after work was done. Max was surprised no one had put this together sooner, but all of the auto shops had good reputations. In fact, one of them had a contract with the Providence Police Department and serviced all of the police cruisers. The irony of that was astounding.

  “We should head back, I guess,” Dubs said.

  “We do need to pick where we’re going tonight,” Max said.

  “I was thinking more along the lines of we should finish our work day,” Dubs said, looking amused.

  “Oh, that too, of course. How will your dad and Mrs. Otis feel about you giving up stealing cars? It was their life’s work, right?”

  “They already know,” Dubs said. “They’re really supportive. They were both so pissed at me when I ended up in prison. And they don’t like how much things have changed now. There’s so much money, and drugs, and other influences on the streets now. It’s dangerous. Look at what’s happened since I’ve been out. I’ve been shot at, flipped, and had a bomb dropped off for Holt. I need a nice, safe job, like a desperate housewife.”

  “Somehow I can’t see that one working for you.”

  “I have no idea how to cook,” Dubs said. “So you would be the desperate one.”

  They started their stroll back to the office. Along the way, their cuffed hands joined and they finished the walk hand in hand. Max felt more settled than she had in the past two weeks. She also felt lighter and significantly happier.

  When they got back, no one was at any of the desks in the main office space. Holt’s door was closed. Max checked the GPS tracker on Amy’s car and saw it heading back toward her house. She texted Isabelle, asking if she had changed her mind about Max “borrowing” some IRS employee tax information from the auto shops of interest. Isabelle said no, not yet. There wasn’t much left for her to do. It was still early, but they headed upstairs to get ready to go out. Max uncuffed them while they got dressed. “I don’t think we need those tonight. No one should be trying to run away,” Max said.